Paradoxes Of Christmas Series

Little Hattie, determined to give her hero the highest image and magnify his achievements,

wrote the following in her history examination-"Abraham Lincoln was born Feb. 12, 1809, in

a log cabin which he built himself." Lincoln was indeed a great man but historians, I think,

are universal agreement that he did all of his building after he was born. In fact, you will find

this to be the pattern in all biographies except one. And that is what makes Christmas so

paradoxical. It is the story of one who is born into a world that he literally made himself.

John says, " through Him all things were made, without Him nothing was made that has

been made." Jesus made the very stage of history on which he played history's greatest role-

the Savior of the world. He who made the stars became the Star on that stage lit up by the

Star of Bethlehem. What this means is, Christmas began long before it even started. Dale

Evans Rogers wrote,

Christmas my child is always

It was always in the heart of God, It was born there

Only He could have thought of it.

Like God, Christmas is timeless and eternal,

From everlasting to everlasting.

Not only was Jesus crucified before the foundation of the world, He was also born then, for

Christmas like the cross is both historical and eternal. Christmas comes near the end of the

year and this is very appropriate because it makes it a climactic event. That is what it is in

God's plan for the whole of history before Christmas was in anticipation of it's coming.

I read of a woman who was caught up in the Christmas rush and when she saw some Christmas

cards on sale she grabbed them. When she got home she quickly got them into

envelopes and sent them off in the mail. With a sense of satisfaction at both her economy and

efficiency, she sat down and opened one of her bargain cards to read the message. It said in

bold print-THIS CARD IS JUST TO SAY A GIFT IS ON THE WAY. Haste makes waste is

often true and she blew it, but God did not. This was the message of the Old Testament-the

law was just to say God's gift of grace is on its way. Christmas was the divine event toward

which the Old Testament was every moving.

The paradox of it all is that this eternal divine event, in the heart of God, was so human.

The genealogy of the Christ child was human. It was a loin that came down through kings

and heros, to be sure, but it also was full of sinners. The paradox is that Jesus was the only

baby ever born who had a choice of His heritage. Nobody else ever choose where, when, or to

whom they would be born. But Jesus chose the time and place, the clime and race, where He

would show the world God's face. He not only built the stage He chose the cast for the

greatest story ever told.

An eight year old boy came home from school and thrilled his parents with the news that

he had been selected to announce the characters for the Christmas pageant. His father was

so elated he went out and bought him the finest suit he could find. To give his son some

assurance he pinned the names of the characters of the nativity on the inside of his new coat.

When the characters appeared on stage the boy announced, "this is Jesus in the manger and

Mary is nearby with Joseph standing next to her. The three men are..." His mind went blank,

he could not remember and so he took a quick look inside in coat prepared for just such an

emergency and he blurted out, "Hart, Shaffner, and Marx!"

He made a mistake and chose the wrong names but Jesus made no such mistake. He

deliberately chose the characters that are forever linked to Him in the Christmas story. The

three wise men, or kings, add some statue to the cast but most of them are rather

commonplace. If you chose your parents would you have chosen Joseph and Mary? Nice

people, but rather low on the totem pole of economic security. Okay for those who have no

choice but He who could have chosen anyone, chose them. Then he chose to have His birth

first announced to the shepherds, one of the lowest classes of people available. Plan before

the foundation of the world, and this is what He chose? The angels give it a touch of class but

let's face it, the Christmas cast is so humbly human. Conceived, planned, organized and

arranged by heaven yet look at how earthly and human a story it is-